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The draft order for the first round is below, subject to change if any teams outside of the top 10 picks sign a free agent who merits compensation. If a free agent's former club offers him a one-year deal with a salary that matches the average of the top 125 salaries from 2012 (roughly $13.5 million), the new team forfeits its first-round pick (unless it's in the top 10, in which case the second-rounder is forfeited). The old club gets a choice at the end of the first round (but not the new team's selection).

Each team's approximate bonus pool to sign its picks in the first 10 rounds is in parentheses. Those numbers are based on the 2012 pick values, which will be adjusted upward to reflect the increase in MLB's revenues this year. Bonus pool money will shift from one team to another every time a competitive-balance lottery pick is traded (those deals only can occur during the regular season) or a compensation free agent changes clubs.

Jeremy Martinez is a 2013 C/IF with a 5-11 195 lb. frame from Fountain Valley, CA who attends Mater Dei. Martinez is an outstanding defensive catcher, receives very well, blocks well, very good catch and throw skills, takes charge of the game, has a fast bat with good power potential, ball comes off very well, loud off bat, outstanding all around talent that needs to be watched very closely.

2010:

Jeremy Martinez is a 2013 C/IF with a 5'11'', 195 lb. frame from Fountain Valley, CA who attends Mater Dei. Strong athletic build, big offensive tools, hit a homerun during batting practice, very strong for his age, good swing, quick hands, good bat speed, ball jumps off the bat, good extension out front, good receiving skills, sure-handed, sets up well, good release, very solid across board.

Reese McGuire is a 2013 C/3B with a 6-1 190 lb. frame from Kent, WA who attends Kentwood HS. Square shouldered athletic build, strong with room for more strength. Outstanding defensive catcher, cat-like quickness shifting, blocks balls as well as any HS catcher in many years, very quick release on throws, 1.84 best pop, threw 83 mph between innings, sacrifices arm strength for quickness/accuracy at times. Left handed hitter, open spread stance, gets too wide with his base at times, very good bat speed, explodes hands at the ball, makes game adjustments to shorten up, has lift/power but can also take ball the opposite way, still developing real identify as a hitter but has the tools. Defense and athleticism stands out, plays the game hard. Good student, verbal commitment to San Diego.

• Javier Baez (Chicago Cubs) homered in his first AFL at bat, a bomb that landed about halfway up the giant batter's-eye structure in center field at Salt River Fields; it was as loud a hit off the bat as you're likely to hear. Word travels fast, and Baez is now seeing more off-speed stuff and more pitches away that he can't pull, mostly because his swing is so hard and so fast that he's unable to control it once he starts it.

I just really enjoyed the reporter - Mark Haggard (sp?) - making this the fluff piece it was. Sold the **** out of it...

I still love Villanuevas overall group of tools and budding skills despite them not being superstar good. He really has the potential to have one of the more complete games in the system. Actually think he gets undersold as a Cub prospect because of the general distaste for Cubs prospects above A ball right now and the fact that he got a little boost by leaving the Rangers system. Think his style of prospect represents a definite change in pace from the current group of A+ to AAA guys not named Baez - who I dont really count there anyway as his A+ callup was more of a cup of coffee. Hes a more skilled, probably can even say far more skilled, player than all of them at this stage of their development except for Jackson.

I just really enjoyed the reporter - Mark Haggard (sp?) - making this the fluff piece it was. Sold the **** out of it...

I still love Villanuevas overall group of tools and budding skills despite them not being superstar good. He really has the potential to have one of the more complete games in the system. Actually think he gets undersold as a Cub prospect because of the general distaste for Cubs prospects above A ball right now and the fact that he got a little boost by leaving the Rangers system. Think his style of prospect represents a definite change in pace from the current group of A+ to AAA guys not named Baez - who I dont really count there anyway as his A+ callup was more of a cup of coffee. Hes a more skilled, probably can even say far more skilled, player than all of them at this stage of their development except for Jackson.

Outside of his patience right now which should come as he progresses, what is there to not love about Baez's approach? He goes out there hoping to crush the ball every time, not to mention he's got dat swag.

I liked that Villanueva piece. I actually like him quite a bit as a prospect.

Outside of his patience right now which should come as he progresses, what is there to not love about Baez's approach? He goes out there hoping to crush the ball every time, not to mention he's got dat swag.

I liked that Villanueva piece. I actually like him quite a bit as a prospect.

He doesn't try to shorten his swing AT ALL when he has 2 strikes on him. He can be down 0-2 in the count and he will still swing as hard as he can at a breaking ball low and away. He's only 19, but it definately bears watching.

He doesn't try to shorten his swing AT ALL when he has 2 strikes on him. He can be down 0-2 in the count and he will still swing as hard as he can at a breaking ball low and away. He's only 19, but it definately bears watching.

That's really not uncommon for legitimate sluggers.

†

"But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

I was thinking now would be a decent time to start a community top 30 prospects list. I know we tried to do that before, but I don't think the approach taken was really the best. If we were to try to do it again we should do it like minorleagueball. Where pitchers and hitters are done separately. And only 2 players are voted on at any time and comments would be to determine the next player added to the vote. Ie. we could just concede top hitter to Baez and have a vote between Soler and Almora, while everyone adds who they next hitter added to the queue. Ie. a person may rank them Almora, Soler, Brett Jackson. They would vote for Almora, and write in Brett Jackson for the next hitter. In the next round (assuming Jackson is selected). The vote would be Soler over Jackson, then writing in the next hitter they want added to the queue. Obviously the player with the most write ins would be the player added to the queue.

We'd have all off-season, we could probably get pretty deep. I suppose for pitchers the first round would be Vizcaino vs Paniagua. At some point you can have votes to integrate the hitters and pitchers.

Outside of his patience right now which should come as he progresses, what is there to not love about Baez's approach? He goes out there hoping to crush the ball every time, not to mention he's got dat swag.

I liked that Villanueva piece. I actually like him quite a bit as a prospect.

Just to riff on the "Sheffield" comps, one of the things Sheffield excelled at was picking up the ball. He did a great segment on the MLB Network a while back about adjusting to different pitches and it was remarkable what he knew about seeing the ball out of the pitcher's hand and adjusting his swing. He had a career BB/K ratio of 1.26. Not only was he patient enough to take walks, but it was also hard to strike him out.

Just to repost this since I was in the wrong thread - the positional scarcity at 3rd makes Villanueva a valuable player even if he's not a star. If he can be an average hitter and play the position, that's a very valuable player to have.

Just to riff on the "Sheffield" comps, one of the things Sheffield excelled at was picking up the ball. He did a great segment on the MLB Network a while back about adjusting to different pitches and it was remarkable what he knew about seeing the ball out of the pitcher's hand and adjusting his swing. He had a career BB/K ratio of 1.26. Not only was he patient enough to take walks, but it was also hard to strike him out.

Just to repost this since I was in the wrong thread - the positional scarcity at 3rd makes Villanueva a valuable player even if he's not a star. If he can be an average hitter and play the position, that's a very valuable player to have.

I just think as Baez progresses into the upper levels of the minors, the patience will come as he adjusts to better pitching. I just think right now when he was in EXST and at Peoria, everything he saw he felt he could crush the ball and he did as proven by his A stats. Now he struggled in High A because the pitching is obviously better there and teams probably started to catch on to his tendencies and throwing more offspeed stuff but to me that's expected.

It IS uncommon for the all-around complete hitters in the game, though. Go watch a Joey Votto swing when he's down in the count. Once again, it's not a dealbreaker, especially at his young age, but it could really hamper his ceiling if he doesn't make any headway in this department over the next few years.